Explaining that NJEA quote: A clue for the clueless

Andrew Mills/The Star-LedgerNew Jersey Education Association President Barbara Keshishian: She sure sounds like she went to public school.

I had a lot of fun making light of the headline on that press release from the NJEA's Barbara Keshishian in response to the governor's call for merit pay: "An unproven step in the wrong direction."

I expected, rather naively I now realize, that anyone with an understanding of the English language would be appalled at the construction.

I had discounted the fact that most my readers went to public school and therefore had the development of their language skills arrested by the very institution the NJEA is trying to protect from reform.

So let me explain what is wrong with that construction in the simplest possible way.

A common test for this sort of thing is to reverse the meaning of the key word and see how that affects the overall meaning.

Let us reverse the meaning of "unproven."

We now have Ms. Keshishian attacking the governor's move as "a proven step in the wrong direction." This is still a mixed metaphor. And she's still wrong on the content; there is no proof merit pay doesn't work. But at least she no longer sounds like she was educated in the same system she is dedicated to protecting from long-overdue improvement.

Okay then, boys and girls, here's your little quiz:

If "a proven step in the wrong direction" is a bad thing, then what is "an unproven step in the wrong direction?"

Is that a good thing?

Reflect deeply on this.

You may keep these reflections to yourselves.

AND another thing, you knuckleheads: Many of the commenters who have written in to defend this are missing the rather obvious point that this was a press release, i.e. a missive sent to people trained in the art of journalism who would all recognize the substandard use of the English language. Any copy editor who tried to hand such a headline to the slotman would summarily be shown the door of any self-respecting newspaper. It does not matter that you personally find this sort of thing acceptable. You lack the ability to understand its effect on its intended audience.